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CHICAGO—The answer comes quickly, forcefully, with no hesitation and from the heart.

“No regrets,” says Myck Kabongo. “None.”

For all he’s been through — an NCAA suspension that robbed him of all but 11 games of the most important season of his young life, the need now to re-establish himself as a bonafide NBA talent, the questions about his place at the next level — Kabongo steadfastly refuses to think “what if.”

“I do regret eating a cheeseburger last night, had to catch my wind a bit today but no, no regrets,” he jokes.

“It made me a better person, a better teammate and a better basketball player so, no, no regrets at all.”

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In a nutshell, the 6-2 Toronto native and Texas point guard, was suspended for the first 23 Longhorn games last season for violating NCAA rules after accepting a “benefit” from an agent the summer before to travel and train with his friend Tristan Thompson of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

After a drawn out investigation, the NCAA suspended him and he had to watch most of a season that he should have been using to impress scouts with his point guard talents.

“With this whole situation, what people don’t understand is I was trying to become a better basketball player,” the 21-year-old said after his first workout session at the two-day combine. “I think that gets hidden, I was going to work out to become a better basketball player; I never thought I was going to break rules, my intentions were never to hurt my team.

“It was unfortunate that it turned out to be a violation, I’m just happy throughout all of it that I was truthful to the NCAA and it’s resolve and it’s behind me and it’s time to move forward.”

The move, however, may be uphill. It’s not that Kabongo lost any of the skills that made him attractive to NBA teams even before last season, but he is a bit behind.

“You understand why he left Texas after everything that happened with the NCAA this year (but) he picked a bad year to do it, given that he didn’t have enough games to prove to NBA scouts that he was better than the freshmen,” ESPN draft expert Chad Ford said on a conference call this week.

Kabongo’s main job on the court here this week was to show representatives of every team that his skills can translate from college to the NBA. He is quick and athletic but he didn’t shoot particularly well in the sessions and never got to play a five-on-five game, where he believes he can separate himself from other point guards.

“That I can compete and I’m a true point guard,” he said when asked what he had to show. “I think that’s missing and I think I’m a true point and I’m going to show it.

“I feel like the true point guard is missing a bit, I think like a point guard and I try to out-think my opponent. Just little things like taking care of the ball, time and score, knowing fouls and who I have to get out of the game. Just little things like that, that art is missing.”

It’s impossible to tell where Kabongo will be drafted; some experts think he could slip into the end of the first round, others have him pegged as a second-rounder.

“People really liked him out of high school, really didn’t like him much after his first year at Texas, and then this whole year was just a wash for him,” said Ford. “I think he’s in danger of flipping to the second round, and unfortunately for him, teams seem to be less committed in the second round to really throwing all of their resources behind the developments they do in the first round. So he’s in a dangerous position. He could end up being a good NBA player, but the developmental curve there is still pretty high.”

For all he’s been through, fighting through diminished expectations shouldn’t be hard. It wasn’t easy to watch his team play, it wasn’t easy to have his character called into question in some circles but he did it.

“Imagine your job got taken away from you, that’s what it feels like, really,” said Kabongo.

“I love playing the game and I love competing and to know that physically I could play but I couldn’t because of my suspension? It was hard but I think I handled it well.”

A fact he explained when the situation inevitably arises in meetings with teams.

“I answer it the same way every time. It was a learning experience, it was a curveball that I had to face and I think I hit a home run with it, the way I handled it. I had people around me to help me,” he said.

If there is one thing about Kabongo that might set him apart, it’s his effusive personality and steadfast belief in himself. When he gets into an interview setting, he could very well win over executives with his personality.

“I don’t shy away from anything,” he said. “I don’t shy away from any questions anyone wants to ask me, I’m going to answer to the best of my ability.

“You have to be honest. If you choke up, people are going to see that. Just be yourself. You’ve got to be relaxed. It’s a job interview — a million dollar job interview —but just be yourself and you’ll be fine.”

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